The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-25

BROOKLYN, May CAS- this is the time |
for the decoration OF the graves of those who |
fell in the war, the naval posts invited the
Rev. t. De Witt Talmage, ID. D., to preach a
sermon at the Brooklyn tabernacle appropri-
ate 10 the occasion, as often in the annual
commemoration but little had been said Of
those who served in the navy. An American
flag adorned the pulpit, and the congregation
sang with great spirit:
My country, It's Of thee,
sweet land of liberty.
DIR. Talnage's text was from James iii, f.
"Behold also the ships" He said:
III this exclamation was appropriate about
1850 years ago, when it was written concern
ing the crude fishing smacks that sailed Lake
Galilee, how much more appropriate in an
age which has launched from the dry docks
for purposes Of peace the Arizona, Of the
Guion line; the City of Richmond, of the In
man line; the Egypt, of the National line; the
Germanic. Of the White Star line; the Circas-
STA, Of the Anchor line; the Etruria, of the
Cunard line, and the Great Eastern, with
hull $50 feet long-not failure, for 1t helped
lay the Atlantic cable, and that was enough
glory for one ships existence-and in age
which for purposes Of war has launched the
screw slOops like the Idaho, the Shenandoah,
the Ossipee, and our ironclads like the Kala-
mazoo, the Roanoke and the Dunderberg, and
JnDSc winch nave Already deem DufleQ IN the
deep like the Monitor the Housatonic, the
Weehawl1en and the Tecumseh, the tempests
ever since sounding a volley over their watery
sepulchers, and the SCARED veterans Of wa
shipping like the Constitution, or the Alliance,
or the Constellation that have swung into the
naval yards to spend their last days, their
decks now all silent of the feet that trod them,
their rigging all silent of the hands that chung
TO them, their port holes silent of the brazen
threats that once Numbered out Of them If
in the first century, when war vessels were
dependent on the oars that padded at the side
of them for propulsion, my text was sug
gestive, with how much more emphasis, and
meaning, and overwhelming Renaissance we
can cry out, as we see the Kearsage lay
across the bows Of the Alabama and sink IL,
teaching foreign nations they had better
keep their hand off American fight,
OF as we sec the ram Albemarle, of the Con-
federates, running ont and in the Roanoke,
and up and down the coast, throwing every
thing into confusion no other craft ever
did pursued by the Miami, the Ceres, the
Southneld, the Sassacus the Mattabesett, the
Whitehead, the Commodore Hull, the Louis
lana the Minnesota and other armed vessels,
all trying in vain 10 catc,: her until Capt.
Gushing, 81 years of age, and his men blew
her up, himself and only one other escaping,
and as | see the flagship Hartford, and the
Richmond and the Monongahela, with other
gunboats, sweep past the batteries OF Port
Hudson, and the Mississippi flows forever
free 10 all northern and southern craft, cry
out with patriotic emotion that | cannot sup
press, If | would, and would not if | could:
"Behold also the ships"
At the annual decoration Of graves north
and south among Federals and Confederates
full justice has been done TO the memory of
ha fought on the In nd in O1tr sad oOu-
test but not enough has been said of those
who on ships deck dared and suffered all
things Lord God of the rivers and the sea,
help me in this sermonl &c. ye admirals, COM
modores, commanders, captains, pilots, gun
ners, boatswains, sailmakers, surgeons, stokers
messmates and seamen of all names, to use
your own parlance, might well get
under way and stand out toward sea. Let all
land lubbers go ashore Full speed nowi
Four bellsl
Never since the sea fight of Lepauto, where
300 royal galleys, manned by $4,000 warriors,
at sunrise, Sept 6, 1871, met $50 royal galleys,
manned by 10000 men, and in the four hours
OF battle 5000 fell ON one side and %, 600 on
the other. yea, never since the day when at
Actium, thirty-one years before Christ,
Augustus, with 260 ships, scattered the 220
ships of Mark Antony and gained universal
dominion the prize; yea, since the day
when at Salamis the 1900 galleys of the
Persians, manned by SOC, 600 men, were crushed
by Greeks with less than a third of that force;
yea, never since the time of Noah, the first
ship captain has the world seen such a mi
raculous creation as that of the American
navy in 1861. There about 200 avail
able seamen in all the naval stations and re-
ceiving ships and here and there an old
vessel. Yet orders were given to blockade
$500 miles OF sea coast, greater than the
whole coast Of Europe and, beside that, the
Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi and
other great rivers, covering an extent of
1000 moro miles, were to be patrolled No
wonder the whole civilized world burst into
guffaw of laughter at the seeming impossi
bility, But the work was done, done almost
Immediately, done thoroughly, and done
with a speed and copsummate skill that
eclipsed all the history of naval architecture.
What brilliant achievements are suggested
by the mere mention of the names of the
rear admirals If all they did should be
written, every one, l suppose that even the
world itself could not contain the books that
should be written But these names have
received the bonors due. The most of them
went to their graves under the cannonade of
all the forts. navy yards and men of war, the
flags of all the shipping and capitals at half
mast.
But recite to-day the deeds of our naval
heroes who have not yet received appropriate
recognition "Behold also the ships" As we
will never know what our national prosperity
is worth until we realize what it cost, recall
the unrecited fact that the men of the navy
ran especial risks. They had not only the
human weaponry to contend with, but the
tides, the fog, the storm. Not like other ships
could they run into harbor at the approach
of an equinox, or a cyclone. or hurricane,
l,s.l a.rl
culation OF tide might bring them on bar,
and a fog1night overthrow all the plans of
wisest commodore and admiral and accident
might leave them. not on the land ready for
an ambulance, but at the bottom of the sea-
as when the torpedo blew up the Tecumseh,
in Mobile bay, and nearly all on board per-
ished They We're at the mercy of the At
lantic and Pacific oceans, which have no
mercy Such tempests have wrecked the
Spanish armada might any day swoop upon
the squadron. No hiding behind the earth
works. No digging in of cavalry spurs at the
sound of retreat. Mightier than all the fort
resses ON all the coasts is the ocean when it
bombards a iotilla- In the cemeteries for
Federal and Confederate dead are the bodies
of most of those who fell on the land. But
where those are who went down in the
war vessels will not be known until
the sea gives up its dead. The Jack tars knew
that while loving arms might carry the men
who fell ON the land and bury them with
solumn liturgy and the honors Of war, for
the bodies of those who dropped from the rat
lines into the sea or went down with all on
board under the stroke of gunboat there re-
manned the shark and the whale and the end |
less tossing of the sea which cannot rest How
win you find their graves for this rational
decorationi Nothing but the archangel's
trumpet shall reach their lowly bed. A few
OF them have been gathered into naval GENE
ter1es or the land and you will garland the |
sod that covers them, but who will put flow |
ers on the fallen crew of the exploded West
Held and Shawsheen, and the sunken South |
field and the Winfield Scott Bullets threat |
ening In front, bombs threatening fsom above,
torpedoes threatening from beneath and the |
RfgUreR iying an around, am not right in
saying 1t required a special courage for the |
navy7
1t looks picturesque and beautiful to see q |
war vessel going out through the Narrows, |
sailors in new rig singing:
life on the ocean wave,
A home on the rolling deepl
the colors gracefully dipping to passing ships, |
the decks immediately clean and the guns at |
Quarantine firing parting salute. But the /
poetry is all gone out of that ship as it comes |
out OF that engagement its decks red with |
human blood, wheelhouse gone, the cabins a /
pile OF shattered mirrors and destroyed fur
niture, steering wheel broken. smokestack
crushed, hundred pound whitworth rife
shot having left its mark from port to star
board, the shrouds rent away, ladders splin-
tered and decks plowed up and smoke black
ened and scalded corpses lying among those
who are gasping their last gasp far away
from home and kindred, whom they love as
much as we love wife and parents and chill
dren Not waiting until you are dead to put